The new duty on employers to inform workers of their right to join a trade union – what to do now?

From 30 October 2026, new statutory rights will apply to trade union access to workplaces. Independent trade unions will be able to make formal requests for physical and/or digital access to communicate with, support, represent, recruit or organise workers, including where the employer does not recognise a union.
However, there is also now a delay in respect of the employer’s obligations to inform its workers of these new rights. So, what should employers be doing now?

What is Delayed?

The new legal duty requiring employers to issue a standardised written statement informing staff of their right to join a trade union has been postponed from 30 October 2026 to 1 January 2027. As a result, there is no immediate requirement on employers to notify its current staff or incoming autumn hires about these union rights.

The revised compliance timeline is as follows:
• New Starters (on or after 1 January 2027): You must issue the standardised, unamended written statement alongside their employment contract/basic particulars from day one.
• Existing Employees: You have until 5 April 2027 to ensure your current workforce has been provided with access to the statement (either directly or via an accessible intranet/noticeboard location).

What is NOT Delayed?

Whilst the employee notification duty is pushed back, other key trade union reforms are still coming into force on 30 October 2026 as planned. Most notably, new regulations granting trade unions expanded physical workplace access rights will still take effect at the end of this month.

Next Steps for your Business

Although you do not need to speak with staff immediately (and indeed we would discourage this at this stage so you avoid unnecessarily drawing attention to the new rights before you need to), we recommend using this extra breathing room to prepare your internal systems:

1. Onboarding Audit: Update your post-January onboarding processes to incorporate the mandatory statement once the official Government wording is finalised. We will update you when this is available.

2. Union Mapping: Identify if your business has any existing recognised trade unions or statutory access agreements, as this information must be populated into the January template.

3. Raising awareness and training: Ensure your line managers are trained on the new physical union access rules taking effect on 30 October, including the fact that they should not treat an employee less favourably because they are a union member, are considering joining a union, or are engaging with a union. Managers must also not discourage employees from engaging with a trade union or make comments that could be seen as trying to influence their decision.

Conclusion

There is no need for line managers to proactively raise the new rights with employees or encourage discussion about trade union access at this stage. Indeed, it would be sensible for any internal communication to be coordinated through HR/management, rather than individual managers responding independently to questions or approaching employees about the issue. This avoids creating unnecessary uncertainty or generating an influx of enquiries or requests before the Company has established its process for dealing with any formal union access request.

However, managers must not discourage employees from engaging with a trade union or make comments which could be perceived as seeking to influence their decision. Any approach from a trade union or employee concerning access should be referred to the designated HR/management contact.

Please get in touch if you have any questions regarding the issues discussed in this article.
E: help@jma-hrlegal.co.uk / T: +44 (0)1252 821792